The present invention relates to medical instrumentation. More particularly it relates to improved apnea detector.
There has been, in recent years, an increasing awareness of the incidence as what is now known as sudden infant death syndrome, or crib death. In some instances, this tragedy has been attributed to apnea, or a cessation of breathing, of the infant. There have been many devices proposed for the detection of such apena, most if not all of which require attachment to the infant in the crib. Some of these devices have been in the nature of sensors positioned to be in the flow of the exhalation of the infant to thereby detect the continuity of the breathing process. Other techniques have involved the use of a sphygmomanometer of one sort of another to measure the body movements of the infant incident to the breathing process. These of necessity require attachement to the infant. As long as the apparatus is attached to the infant, a measure of inconvenience or discomfort is a concomitant of the apparatus. Additionally, the sphygmomanometer can under certain conditions give a false indication of continued breathing when actual breathing has stopped. For example, if the infant has stopped breathing due to a blockage of the breathing passageways, and the chest of the infant continues to heave in a spasmotic effort to reestablish breathing, a false sense of continued breathing will be recorded by such motion sensing devices.